Cancer News

AACR: Exercise Linked to Vessel Shape in Prostate Cancer

Monday, January 20, 2014 (Last Updated: 01/21/2014)

MONDAY, Jan. 20, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Men with prostate cancer who walked briskly before diagnosis have more regularly-shaped blood vessels in the tumor, according to a study presented at the AACR-Prostate Cancer Foundation Conference on Advances in Prostate Cancer Research, held from Jan. 18 to 21 in San Diego.

Erin L. Van Blarigan, Sc.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues analyzed the association between pre-diagnostic physical activity (via questionnaires starting in 1986) and prostate tumor vessel morphology (by image analysis of an endothelial marker). Included in the analysis were 572 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who had undergone surgery for prostate cancer.

The researchers found that more regularly-shaped vessels were present in men who reported brisk walking before diagnosis. After adjusting for possible confounders, compared with men who walked the slowest (1.5 to 2.5 mph), men who walked the fastest (3.3 to 4.5 mph) had 8 percent more regularly-shaped vessels (P = 0.01). The association remained significant, though slightly attenuated, after additionally adjusting for clinical stage and Gleason score.

"Brisk walking may be associated with more regularly-shaped vessels in prostate tumors," Van Blarigan and colleagues conclude.